


Nearly Identical

by whats-the-difference (texadian)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex plays soccer, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Last week of school, Senior year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 21:30:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11472054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/texadian/pseuds/whats-the-difference
Summary: It's almost the last day of high school for Alex and she might have just run out of chances to tell Maggie how she's felt since the first day of their 12th grade history class.ORThe High School AU where Alex plays soccer and Maggie is a little unpredictable.





	Nearly Identical

**Author's Note:**

> I got a bit of high school nostalgia writing this—not gonna lie.

Alex passed under the last beam beneath the bleachers with her yearbook clutched tightly in her hands. The air was hot and sticky—the kind that could make its way into your chest, weighing you down. She heard shouting out on the field and the sounds of soccer balls sliding like waves against the nets. When she reached the pavement path, her cleats made sporadic clicking noises against the ground, picking up when she began to run. 

She wasn’t one to skip class or break any legitimate rules—she made this distinction, because some bureaucratic rules in high school just needed to be broken. But this was after school practice, not 2nd period maths. So, not five minutes into practice, she decided that leaving early was worth the possible benching at their last game. 

After going through one set of shots on goal, she abandoned her red and white striped ball, leaving it to sit idle in the back of the net, and kept running past the astro-turf, towards the locker room. The ringing in her ears had only gotten worse once she’d cleared the field and crossed the six track-lanes. She heard her coach yell her name, asking what was wrong, but she couldn’t look back at them. She’d worked so hard at keeping the tears at bay and she wasn’t going to breakdown in front of her team now. 

The locker room greeted her with the always present haze of BO and the smell of old urinal cakes from when the girls team used to share the space with the boys. There was a sense of urgency—a surge of adrenaline—that hit her once she stepped into the long and narrow room. She shuffled over to her locker, piling her school clothes she’d left draped over the rusting hooks into her soccer bag, and pulled at her backpack straps. As she backed away from the locker, not caring that her lock wasn’t closed, she realized her backpack was unzipped. Before she could react, half of its contents spilled out onto the tile floor below. 

“Alex?” One of her teammates had cracked the door open, letting a harsh stream of light pierce the darkened room. 

Alex didn’t look up, instead trying to fit everything back into her bag. The end of the year was close and her backpack was full of knick knacks and old clothes she’d stored in her school locker that year. 

“Coach wants to know if you’re sick?”

Alex shook her head, forcing back a sniff when she felt her chest beginning to heave and her eyes blurring over. 

“I just can’t fit it back in here,” she said, trying to force the zippers around the large, black and shiny yearbook she’d been hauling around all day. 

“Are you leaving?” her teammate finally asked. 

Alex looked up for the first time, gaze stony, and nodded. 

“Tell her I had a family emergency,” Alex replied, finally giving up on the book and choosing to carry it in her hands instead.

“Did you, though?”

Alex bit back a terse sigh, then looked away to the side. Her teammate took this as a no, but let her be anyways. 

“I’ll tell her about the family emergency, Alex. Get better.” 

And then she was alone again.  _ Get better?  _

Alex kicked the locker room door open with her foot and barreled outside towards the senior parking lot. 

The longer she walked, clad head to toe in her high school’s practice uniform, the sillier she felt. The yearbook felt even heavier in her hands as the words she’d read earlier drifted off the page, floating about her mind like whispers in her ears. 

_ You made history bearable,  _ she thought, passing by empty parking spots.  _ I’m really going to miss not being around you next year.  _

Alex jammed her key into the driver’s side slot on her old Civic and turned until the mechanism unlocked. She was careful, ducking into her car carrying both bags and the damn book in her hands. Her soccer bag caught against the seat adjustment knob though, stopping her mid step, so she backed up to try again. This time, she set her yearbook down on the roof of the car, before taking both bags by the straps and tossing them onto the passenger seat across from her. 

“Your roof is filthy, Danvers,” she heard from outside the car. 

She turned in her seat, trying to avoid eye contact with Maggie, and stretched her arm out to take the book. 

“It’s the pollen,” Alex said after she still hadn’t handed it back. 

Her friend brushed the residue off the cover with her hand, before blowing hard into the cracks of the spine. 

“There.” 

She handed Alex back the book and offered a tentative smile. 

“You sure took off fast from 8th period,” Maggie said, standing in the way of the door. 

With one cleat square on the pavement and the other pressed against the mats of her car, Alex leaned forward and shrugged. She ran her hand along the black steering wheel where the old leather was breaking away and only pulled back when she reached a particularly hot spot. 

“I… uh, wanted to say goodbye. In case I end up skipping the half day on Friday.” 

Alex nodded, barely glancing her way before shying back to the torn stitching on her wheel. She couldn’t see the girl anymore, but it was evident after a moment that she wasn’t walking away. Her little black boots continued their tapping against the pavement, rustling up dirt and pebbles from the walkway adjacent. 

“I should get going,” Alex said, despite not making any attempt to do so. 

“Somewhere to be?” 

Alex spun her head around at the sharp and abrasive nature of Maggie’s accusation. 

“Maybe,” he huffed out, less than convincing. 

“I thought you had practice?”

Alex shrugged again. 

“I did, but something came up.”

She shifted her hands into her lap where the book’s hard corners were digging into her thighs.  

“Are you okay?” Maggie asked. 

Alex felt her friend’s—no classmate’s—eyes scan her body for injuries. They didn’t stop roving until they settled on her face. 

“I’m—I’m okay, really. I just couldn’t focus on practice.”

“Something happen?” Maggie asked, stepping closer and leaning an elbow against the black seal on the door. 

“No, no,” Alex replied, shaking her head. “It’s honestly so stupid.”

She rocked the yearbook back and forth with her hands until she let it fall too far and it hit the steering wheel, horn releasing a blare that made both of them jump. 

“I’m sure, whatever it is, that it’s not stupid,” Maggie replied. 

Her boots were literal inches away from Alex’s cleat when she crouched down to meet Alex’s eyes again. She noticed the way Alex’s fingers splayed against the yearbook cover, outlining an embossed  _ H _ with her thumb. 

“You made history bearable. I’m really going to miss not being around you next year,” Alex began, eyes still trained on the book in her hands. “I’m going to miss your endless supply of snacks and your bad attempt at puns and most of all, I’m going to miss you, Alex. It’s a shame we didn’t meet until this semester. Things could have been different.”

Alex finished and looked over to Maggie. Her classmate could only stare down in shock.

“You memorized it,” she commented after a pause, but Alex’s thoughts were elsewhere.

“What did you mean by,  _ things could have been different?” _

It was Maggie’s turn to stare blankly back, shrugging. 

“I don’t know. I guess I sort of envisioned a reality where we had met when I first moved here.”

“Was the reality nice?” Alex asked, clinging to the idea. 

Maggie nodded with a smile. 

“Yes. You were 13, I was 14. We always shared classes together and even when we were apart, we snuck out to the washrooms to text each other. You got caught one time and the teacher took your phone away from you and sent you back to class. I was so worried when you hadn’t messaged back by 3rd period that I crossed campus, stealthy as always, and held notes up to the classroom door’s window to make sure you were okay.

“We went to football games, but didn’t watch, went to dances to be ironic, and only snuck off campus when there were pep rallies so we could get Strawberry smoothies at Jay’s. You let me crash at your house when times were hard and ordered pizza in when my parents were away—”

“We were best friends,” Alex cut in. 

“The best,” Maggie smiled, reaching out and placing her hand over Alex’s. 

It was sort of sweaty and Maggie’s ring dug into her knuckle, but she dared not move it away. 

“Were we ever not  _ friends _ ?” Alex asked. 

Maggie’s brow creased and she frowned. 

“What do you mean?”

“Were we always,  _ just _ friends?” Alex tried again—the  _ just  _ getting caught somewhere in the back of her throat. 

The stress lines framing Maggie’s eyes settled and a curious expression overtook the features on her face. 

“Maggie,” Alex began, rubbing the three back cleats on her shoes into the pavement. “You didn’t  _ just  _ make history bearable.”

She raised both her brows, head titled to the side, and hoped and prayed her  _ friend  _ was catching on. Maggie’s dark eyes just looked back at her though, searching Alex for more. 

“What if there was a third reality,” Alex started up again, rambling this time. “What if there was a third reality—a reality that has existed for the past four months, let’s say?”

Maggie shifted on her feet, still crouched, and let her fingers slide between the cracks in Alex’s.

“And what if this third reality was nearly identical to our own?” Alex continued. 

The crinkles in Maggie’s forehead returned, but she was more amused than concerned now. 

“What if every event that has happened between us—joking in the hall, sharing a mayonnaise container filled with vanilla pudding on April Fools, and just, all of it…” Alex took a breath. “What if all of it was the same until 8th period today?”

Maggie squinted up at Alex, avoiding the late afternoon sun. 

“I guess, Danvers, it would mean that 8th period today was special, in this reality, and that something happened.”

Alex nodded her head enthusiastically, then looked over to Maggie’s shoulder where her backpack hung. 

“Can you—” Alex cut off mid-question and shifted in her seat. 

She looked down at their entwined hands and then back up at Maggie’s backpack. 

“Can I get out for a second?”

The question caught Maggie off guard and she obliged quickly, scooting back from the car. Alex gave her space until she was able to move her own leg out and stand up. 

“I need to fix something,” she said, pointing to Maggie’s backpack. 

Maggie hesitated, slowly lowering the bag from her shoulders and swinging it around to her front like a baby carrier. 

“I need to fix your yearbook,” Alex said, pointing with a shaky finger at the zipped up bag. 

Maggie opened it, without question, and handed the identical book over to Alex. When Alex found the page she was looking for, her eyes read over the blue-ink words, then panned up to Maggie. 

“Do you have a pen as well, by chance?”   
Maggie couldn’t help the light chuckle that escaped her lips, before she reached into the front pocket and handed Alex one with the school’s colours on it. 

“What do you need to fix?” Maggie asked, straining her neck to look over the book’s pages. 

Alex gripped it tight and pulled the book towards her chest. 

“It’s a secret,” she snapped playfully, narrowing her eyes. 

“It’s my book, though,” Maggie muttered silently, though not without the most endearing smirk sent Alex’s way. 

Alex’s attention was solely on the inked page before her though, scanning the signatures and doodles. She shifted the book in her hands when she found what she was looking for and began to write. When she was finished, she recapped the pen, and handed both back over to Maggie. 

“Can I read it now or do I have to wait until I’m alone?” she asked, stowing the pen, but not the book. 

Alex opened the book back up in Maggie’s hands and flipped to the back. 

“Ignore the HAGS part. That was stupid,” Alex said, before stepping back and leaning against the yellow stained frame of her car. 

Maggie’s eyes scanned the words, blinking the more she read. Eventually, the words were mouthed and those mouthed words became sounds. 

“—we would have gone to dances unironically and snuck off campus just for fun. You would have stayed over at my house when times were hard and when times were easy, because time was time and more time with you was a gift. Hopefully that pizza wouldn’t have always been pizza—maybe even a fancy dinner shared over a table with candles and not just the carpet in the downstairs den. But most importantly—”

Maggie paused as she heard Alex take in a shaky breath. 

“—Most importantly, we would have been together way sooner and had more time together. Because if there is one regret that I had this year, it wasn’t getting passed up for the varsity team or losing that full-ride to college. What I regretted everyday when you walked out of 8th period, was not telling you how much you mattered and how much more I wanted...”

Maggie fell silent before she reached Alex’s signed name and closed the book.

“You never told me, Danvers—I never knew.”

Alex shrugged—her grey soccer jersey sleeves snagging on the door frame. 

“I didn’t know either.” 

Something about the situation made Alex smile.

“This is so fucked up,” she said, laughing bitterly. 

“Hey,” Maggie said, raising her arm to Alex’s shoulder. 

She rubbed soothingly—half over her jersey and half over bare skin—until the action felt too repetitive. 

“When did you know?” Maggie asked. 

Alex opened her mouth to say something, when Maggie added on, “you don’t have to explain if you don’t want to.”

It was Alex that initiated the next touch, keeping Maggie’s hand cemented to her arm with her own hand.

“I don’t think it was ever a precise moment.” Alex shook her head with a smile. “I was wondering why I had started liking history class so much.”

“That would have set off alarm bells for me,” Maggie admitted. 

The joke faded eventually until the sound of soccer players and cars from the highway invaded their personal bubble. Maggie let her hand fall from Alex’s arm and moved over to rest against the car beside Alex. She felt the heat from Alex’s skin through the thin material of her button up and leaned into it. It was a solid presence that seemed to ground them both. 

“I’m not due back for another hour,” Alex said after a particularly loud truck passed behind the school. “Soccer practice, remember?”

Maggie nodded with a grin.

“Have you had a strawberry milkshake from Jay’s?” she asked Alex, running her fingers down the brunette’s arm until they reached her hand.

Alex shook her head. 

“I didn’t usually hang around school unless I had practice or some school thing.”

“No, you didn’t. I did always have you pegged as a real keener, Danvers.” 

Maggie nudged Alex with her hip, before grabbing her hand to steady the girl.

“Smooth,” Alex said.

“It was or you wouldn’t be blushing,” Maggie teased. 

She turned to face Alex, her nose bumping against the girl’s cheek, and released a long held sigh. 

“When do you leave for training camp again?” Maggie asked, rolling into Alex’s side, arm pressed against her chest. 

“Beginning of July,” she said heavily. 

Maggie stepped—nay, jumped—back and threw their attached hands high in the air. 

“July? That’s so long.”

Alex shook her head. 

“It will go by fast, trust me.”

Maggie stepped in towards her one more time and rested her nose against her cheek. It had a subtle way of shutting her up. 

“Let’s call it a month, then. 30 days.” She paused, figuring out whether June was a long or short month. “Yes, 30 days. You’ve got a car. I’ve got a serious need to not be at home. What do you say?”

Alex lowered her head, and covered her face with her free hand.

“You sure you won’t get tired of me?” Alex asked. 

“30 days will go by fast,” Maggie repeated, lowering Alex’s hand from her face. 

Maggie’s intense stare was hard to hold, but after a moment, Alex caved. 

“Fine, where do we start?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. 

“Well,” Maggie drawled, releasing Alex’s hands and walking around to the other side of the car. “I’d say Jay’s, because you really need to try their milkshakes, but first I think we should get in and drive.”

Alex snorted. 

“Drive? Drive where?”

“Out of this vicinity,” Maggie said, gesturing to the parking lot around them.

“Okay…” Alex swung back into the car, then reached over to unlock the passenger’s door. 

When she’d turned back to Maggie after closing her own, the girl had a shit-eating smile on her face, just inches from Alex. 

“What?” Alex asked, eyes roaming the girl’s face. 

“Drive,” Maggie whispered, eyebrows raised with an excitement Alex hadn’t seen from the girl all semester. 

She squeezed Alex’s arm impatiently, leaning over quickly to press a kiss to her jaw. 

“Okay, okay,” Alex said, starting the car and pulling it out of park. “What’s the rush anyway?” she asked, before releasing the brake pedal. 

Maggie blushed—like actual full on reddened cheeks and flushed neck blushing. 

“I’ve sort of been wanting more too and I’m not comfortable doing that on school property…” Maggie said in a strangled voice.

Alex chewed on her bottom lip, hand gripping the gear stick, before she raised her eyes to meet Maggie’s. 

“This is so fucked up,” she murmured across the console. 

Maggie nodded. “I know, but you love it.”

Alex smiled. “Yeah. I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr at whats-the-difference.


End file.
